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The laws of thermodynamics are the result of progress made in this field over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The first established thermodynamic principle, which eventually became the second law of thermodynamics, was formulated by Sadi Carnot in 1824 in his book Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire.
The initial application of thermodynamics to mechanical heat engines was quickly extended to the study of chemical compounds and chemical reactions. Chemical thermodynamics studies the nature of the role of entropy in the process of chemical reactions and has provided the bulk of expansion and knowledge of the field.
The first part of the book starts by presenting the problem thermodynamics is trying to solve, and provides the postulates on which thermodynamics is founded. It then develops upon this foundation to discuss reversible processes, heat engines, thermodynamics potentials, Maxwell's relations, stability of thermodynamics systems, and first-order phase transitions.
The second law of thermodynamics may be expressed in many specific ways, [23] the most prominent classical statements [24] being the statement by Rudolf Clausius (1854), the statement by Lord Kelvin (1851), and the statement in axiomatic thermodynamics by Constantin Carathéodory (1909). These statements cast the law in general physical terms ...
The first law of thermodynamics is a formulation of the law of conservation of energy in the context of thermodynamic processes.The law distinguishes two principal forms of energy transfer, heat and thermodynamic work, that modify a thermodynamic system containing a constant amount of matter.
Classical thermodynamics deals with states of dynamic equilibrium.The state of a system at thermodynamic equilibrium is the one for which some thermodynamic potential is minimized (in the absence of an applied voltage), [2] or for which the entropy (S) is maximized, for specified conditions.
Thermochemistry is the study of the heat energy which is associated with chemical reactions and/or phase changes such as melting and boiling. A reaction may release or absorb energy, and a phase change may do the same. Thermochemistry focuses on the energy exchange between a system and its surroundings in the form of heat. Thermochemistry is ...
Chemical thermodynamics is the study of the interrelation of heat and work with chemical reactions or with physical changes of state within the confines of the laws of thermodynamics. Chemical thermodynamics involves not only laboratory measurements of various thermodynamic properties, but also the application of mathematical methods to the ...